A low-ranking official of a county-level financial bureau in Jiangxi Province has escaped overseas after embezzling nearly 100 million yuan (US$15.2 million), which was being investigated by the local government.

Ouyang Changqing (left), former finance chief of Poyang county, talks to a reporter on Feb 17. He was sacked after a low-ranking subordinate allegedly embezzled money equal to a quarter of the county government's annual income.

Li Huabo, director of the economy and construction unit of Poyang Finance Bureau, fled to Canada with his wife and two daughters several days before Spring Festival (February 3) with the money he embezzled. The local police were trying to trace Li's location in Canada, according to a report Sunday in Jiangnan City Daily.

The investigation team, formed by officials from the local authorities including Poyang CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection, Poyang Public Security Bureau, and Poyang Audit Bureau, found a letter in Li's office, in which he described the details of how he embezzled 94 million yuan ($14 million) over four years, said the report.

The letter was supposed to have been sent to Xu Detang, an official of Poyang Rural Cooperative Association who was Li's accomplice, and Ouyang Changqing, the chairman of Poyang Finance Bureau who was Li's leader. Xu was arrested afterwards, and Ouyang was removed from his post after the investigation team found the letter.

The money Li embezzled was obtained from the provincial government, which originally planned to use the money for agricultural infrastructure, such as farmland renovation and reservoirs construction. Li's official duty provided him with access to the money.

Li, collaborating with Xu and other suspects, had used bogus official seals, false statements of account and false invoices to transfer public funds from the local Rural Cooperative Association to an account of a company they had owned since 2006, said the report.

Li was addicted to gambling and often went to Macao to gamble. To make travel to Macao more convenient, he even set up a travel agency in Poyang.

The Poyang government said that they would conduct a complete investigation into the financial condition of every department. Five suspects have been detained as of Sunday afternoon, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.